Wednesday, 8 February 2012

Postcard of the Day No. 53, Wine, Women and Song

The jaunty promise of spicy glamour in the caption is seriously undercut by the facial expressions on display on this postcard from south of the border in Tijuana. These demi-mondaines confront the camera with disconcerting neutrality and distance. A solitary ghost of a smile hardly lifts the mood of sullen menace. The barman’s reptilian stare does nothing to dispel the feeling that we have entered a David Lynch universe. Some industrious retouching has taken place with the usual dubious results – most of the redrawn faces resemble inept female impersonators. For Tijuana this was the era of Agua Caliente, a place to escape Prohibition and over-indulge in alcohol and gambling, when the city was a playground for the Hollywood elite.